Posted on 06/08/2005 3:40:51 AM PDT by PatrickHenry
A woman's genetic make-up accounts for at least a third of her ability to climax during sex, say researchers, and may even account for as much as 60%.
Further investigations into the genetic differences that influence orgasms in women could help produce drugs to treat female sexual dysfunction, they say.
Relatively little is known about the female orgasm, the peak of sexual excitement normally marked by vaginal contractions. "It's a taboo subject," explains Tim Spector, who directs the Twin Research Unit at St Thomas' Hospital, London, and co-authored the report.
Women do not need to climax in order to conceive and give birth, a fact that makes the evolutionary cause of their orgasm slightly mysterious. In contrast, men who cannot orgasm miss the chance to pass on their genes and fall victim to natural selection.
So what function does the female orgasm serve? As well as making women more interested in the activity of procreation, recent investigations have found the contractions it involves can bring sperm closer to the egg, increasing the chance of conception.
Evolutionary psychologists have also suggested that the female orgasm might help women to select caring partners: those who are particularly attentive in the bedroom may also be more supportive in other aspects of life.
Twin peaks
To find out which factors most affect a woman's ability to climax, Spector and his colleagues sent a questionnaire to more than 4,000 female twins to complete anonymously. Recipients included nearly 700 pairs of identical twins, who share the same DNA.
The researchers asked how often the women climaxed during sex. Only 14% of the women reported always achieving an orgasm. At the other end of the spectrum, 16% of them said they never reach orgasm or are unsure about whether they do or not.
As in other studies of twins, the scientists assume that twins share similar family environments. The overall difference between trends in identical twins and fraternal twins is thus attributed to genetic influences. The analysis suggests that genes explain at least 34% of the probability that a woman orgasms during sex. When it came to masturbation, this number climbed to 45%, the researchers report in Biology Letters1.
This number could go even higher, they add, if one could account for other variables, such as the different techniques of the women's partners. Genetic influences have been seen to account for as much as 60% of variability in other complex traits, such as obesity.
Pleasure in a pill
The number of genes that influence the female orgasm remains unknown. But researchers reason that comparing the DNA of women who always orgasm with that of those who never do could shed light on the biological pathway behind the process. Drugs could then be developed to target the most influential genes or gene products in this pathway.
Medications for male erectile problems, such as Pfizer's Viagra (sildenafil citrate), have already given men more options, says London-based relationship therapist Ruth Mitchell. But she says women lack a similarly popular and effective treatment.
Even with the promise of drugs, Mitchell cautions that many factors besides biology affect the ability to orgasm. "There's such a huge impact from conditioning and expectation," she says.
There is an Andrew Dice Clay line in here somewhere.
Funny, I find it much easier to orgasm without genes (jeans) :)
"That's from post 23. Anyone else find that to be a bit strange?"
Yep,...especially the following part where it apparently made the woman hot. Since it was reading like some kind of bizarre Christian penthouse letter, I was trying to ignore it.
What about the word action itself?
You can do it wrong???
What I would like to know is what chemicals are released during orgasm? The ones that cause instant relaxation and almost instantaneous sleep? Because if you could sell those, you'd make a fortune.
I have very intense sneezes and also sneeze multiple times. I think your friend is right. ;^)
Your explanation is too complicated.
The simple explanation is that women who have orgasms will enjoy sex more than ones who don't. The more you enjoy sex, the more sex you have, and the more sex you have, the more you reproduce.
Elementary, my dear Watson.
I mean, would men want sex as much as they do now if they couldn't have orgasms? I think not . . . .
Good point...... I was referring to the trip, not the destination......;^)
Smart woman!
The simple explanation is that women who have orgasms will enjoy sex more than ones who don't. The more you enjoy sex, the more sex you have, and the more sex you have, the more you reproduce.
Except that if this purely adaptive explanation were true, then there would be greater evidence of it being selected for. The study shows only a 60% genetic component to female orgasm. If it were as straight forward as you suggest, then I would expect that number to be in the high 90%s.
The biggest mistake in the purely adaptive explanation is that for human females, lasting reproductive success does not come with having the most sex, but with the quality of the mate with whom you choose to reproduce. Because of the huge investment in child rearing among humans, the females' reproductive strategy isn't advanced by having more sex, because biologically, females are quite limited in the sheer number of children they can have during their lifetime. So females cannot appreciably increase their reproductive success by increasing the amount of sex they have. (Assuming that they are not starting from "zero", of course.) Males, by contrast, have no such biological constraint. A single high-status man fathering hundreds of children in a single year is easy to contemplate. It would be impossible for a woman to come anywhere near even 5% of that number.
A woman's reproductive strategy is maximized by being able to attract and choose to mate with high-status males and to find males with the ability to help raise children. The net result is that following this strategy she will have more offspring survive to maturity; her sons will have a genetically better opportunity to be high-status males themselves (with the opportunity for high reproductive success) and her daughters will have a genetically better chance of being able to identify and attract high-status males herself.
I mean, would men want sex as much as they do now if they couldn't have orgasms? I think not . . . .
Because this goes to the male reproductive strategy. My "explanation" acknowledges that the male orgasm is adaptive; that is, that it exists because it was selected for by evolution. Female reproductive strategies and male reproductive strategies differ significantly.
The "better sex = more sex = more reproduction" paradigm is the basis for the selective pressure in males but, of course, doesn't take into account social groupings, the differential rates of offspring survival, etc., and the effects these have on reproductive success. The female reproductive picture is different.
I dream of Jeanie.....
...this article, and research, has one motive: promoting EVOLUTION, using sex as bait.I'll bet both you men were indignant when you first learned that doctors give painkillers to women during childbirth.A modern use of idolatry, Pavlovian behavioral conditioning, conditioned responses...
"The" female reproductive strategy? Like there's only one? Which mysteriously is just like 20th century American traditional female reproductive strategy? "Marry a high status male, don't waste your sexual prime on that hot guy just because he's cute."
One word - bonobos (a subspecies of chimpanzee). One of the few species that we know has sex just for fun.
Female bonobos don't go looking for "high status males" to reproduce with. They have sex with lots of males, all of which give them presents and help raise the babies. Bonobos don't worry about which guy has the coolest car and which one is going to buy them the biggest dishwasher and which one is going to help put the kids through college.
Back when human beings evolved, they didn't worry about cars and dishwashers and college tuition, either.
Imagine if human females liked to have sex with a lot of males (no!), and nobody knew for sure who the father was (double no!). She'd probably have the most sex with the hottest guys, but "marry" the guy who would make the best husband and/or father.
Best of all possible worlds, no?
Meanwhile, the guy who is worried that he's going to be stuck raising someone else's kid would rather marry a lady who hates sex, because she's more likely to stay "pure." That's why a lot of cultures cut off women's clitorises or sew their vaginas shut or lock them in harems. Unrestrained female sexuality is dangerous to the guy whose only lure for women is dishwashers and cars and college tuition -- in other words, material goodies, or what you call "high status."
So, the ability to have an orgasm gets the hot ladies into bed at an earlier age, and keeps them looking for hot sex their whole lives.
Maybe they can't have several hundred kids, but neither can the bald-headed pot-bellied dork males, and neither can the non-orgasmic females. So just one or two more children over a few million years means they're reproducing sooner, more, and later than the non-orgasmic females.
Case closed.
How much would you wager and could you afford to pay off, or would you welch...
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